RIM, Focus on Consumers, Not Carriers

RIM’s next smartphone platform, BlackBerry 10, is expected to hit the market next year. It has already been delayed, and since the launch is still far off, RIM is apparently trying to drum up interest in its new platform by showing it off to its carrier partners, who seem to “love” it.

RIM showcased early versions of new BlackBerry devices to carriers in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and here’s what they had to say about it:

“The response that we got back from the executive team at some of the Canadian carriers was tremendous.

They were visibly positive and visibly enthusiastic.”

While RIM will be launching these devices globally, it stated that it intends to focus on its home market, Canada.

With still around a year to go, RIM may be too late to market and is likely to fail. Another thing — RIM still doesn’t seem to get that it’s not about the carriers (it might have been the case earlier, but the iPhone changed the game), but the consumers.

It needs to focus not on making carriers happy with its platform and devices, but on making consumers happy. The days when carriers ruled the smartphone space are gone. RIM needs to learn that ultimately, it’s the user who will decide whether or not its devices are hits, not carriers. Until it does that, it can hardly even think of displacing the iPhone or Android.

Not focusing on the end user has led to its grip on the enterprise mobility space slowly loosening in the last couple of years, as the iPhone and Android devices gained traction in that space. If it doesn’t learn from its mistakes, it might be too late, if it isn’t already.